I’ve barely stepped through the front door of Peking Restaurant in Westminster, and one of the owners, Lili Shen, is shouting at me from the opposite corner. She’s unloading an armful of food onto a lazy Susan at a large table, her eyes fixed on me the whole time, wanting to make sure I know she sees me. All the guests turn to see who has entered. I feel like I’m being sized up.

“Over there,” she says, pointing to a table near the kitchen. She grabs some chopsticks and napkins and follows us. She brings forks, too, just in case.

Peking Restaurant looks like it’s been around forever. The Westminster shopping center in which it’s located has certainly seen better days. The sign out front is brightly illuminated, proudly announcing “Chinese food” beneath a script of characters. The blinds are drawn half-shut, as if I’ve entered into a secret club.

Before I’ve had time to read past the first page of the menu, Shen approaches with her notepad and pencil: “You want country-style chicken? You want beef roll?”

“It’s good. You’ll like it,” she says, writing it down on her pad. “What else, fried dumpling?”

“Yes, that sounds good,” I say, pointing to an item on the menu described as “pan-fried meat dumplings.”

“No, not that one,” she says. “We don’t make that anymore. I’ll give you a different one.”

Our whirlwind exchange lasts a few seconds before Shen darts down the hallway and sticks her head into a small kitchen window and banters with the chef. Their voices reverberate through the restaurant while a wok clangs rapidly against the stove. Something sizzles. More clanging. I suddenly smell garlic. I smell soy sauce caramelizing, getting darker and richer. My stomach growls.

Chinese food in Orange County comes in many guises, from the Beijing-inspired cooking at Peking in Westminster to the tongue-numbing, chili- and peppercorn-laced dishes of Sichuan Impression in Tustin or Chong Qing Mei Wei in Irvine. And there’s a purveyor of American-style kung pao chicken and sweet-and-sour pork in just about every neighborhood — some of them very, very good.

We could argue about the authenticity of much of the latter, but that’s beside the point. Orange-peel chicken is to Chinese food in America what spaghetti and meatballs is to Italian. You won’t find much of either in the homelands, but that doesn’t make it any less delicious when prepared with heart and soul.

While Irvine is the epicenter of O.C.’s diverse Chinese food universe, there are good options all around. I’ve been eating Chinese food on a weekly basis for the past couple of years, ramping up to three or four times a week for the past several months. Based on that, I feel confident in declaring that these are the 20 best Chinese restaurants in Orange County.

1. Din Tai Fung

The South Coast outpost of this dumpling specialist is all-around best Chinese restaurant in Orange County. Although the three-hour waits have grown rarer, you can still expect to stand in line for an hour at peak times. It’s absolutely imperative that you order the Shanghai-style soup dumplings called xiao long bao. The shumai dumplings are outstanding, too. The potstickers are unlike any you’ve ever had before. Meanwhile, the chicken noodle soup will cure absolutely anything.

Expect the service to be bossy but sweet. The Beijing-inspired food comes out fast and hot. Chef Jerry Chen makes the best beef-and-scallion pancake in O.C.. Also worth ordering: panfried dumplings, stir-fried eggplant with basil and the green beans with minced pork. And if you like honey walnut shrimp, theirs is the best.

8566 Westminster Blvd., Westminster, 714-893-3020

3. Sichuan Impression

Start with the cumin toothpick lamb. Then move on to the “finger-licking spicy crab,” which comes with plastic gloves. The tea-smoked pork ribs are fantastic, too, buried beneath a flurry of fried garlic and dried red chilies. You can enjoy a variety of fresh greens cooked however you see fit.

13816 Red Hill Ave., Tustin, 714-505-9070

4. Tan Cang Newport Seafood

Many restaurants serve a version of wok-fried lobster inspired by the typhoon-shelter cuisine of Hong Kong’s disappearing Yau Ma Tei boat people, but nobody does it better than this place. Take some friends. Order the 7-pound platter of Newport Special lobster. Get some spicy clams and yang chow fried rice to go with it.

Yelpers hate this place because it’s not cheap. Forget Yelp. Yes, the decor is so splashy that you’ll need sunglasses, but this is easily the best dim sum in O.C. The beef cheong fun (steamed rice paper roll) is superb. This is also the best place to get whole Peking duck. And if you like congee, you top it with lobster.

If you like it hot, eat here. Get the beef with green and red chillies. Order the dry chicken hot pot. Order extra water and prepare to sweat.

5406 Walnut Ave., Irvine, 949-651-8886

7. Tasty Noodle House

This is the second-best place to get xiao long bao, and the first place to go for Shanghai-style stir-fried rice cakes and bold, spicy beef noodle soup. Another must: stir-fried peppers with minced pork.

15333 Culver Drive, Suite 320, Irvine, 949-654-3770

8. China Moon

No competitor comes close to China Moon when it comes to service, which is what really sets this place apart. Classic Taiwanese American cuisine – kung pao chicken, sticky barebecue pork ribs, salt-and-pepper calamari – is prepared by an earnest young chef who often comes to check on you himself.

The menu covers a lot of ground. Start with a Hong Kong-style milk tea. You’ll need something sweet to offset the heat from the spicy beef hot pot. The Beijing-style pork chops will help with that, too. They’re a sweet, sticky mess. You’ll also want to consider the roasted clams and the beef chow fun with crispy garlic.

Plenty of folks will take issue with P.F. Chang’s on this list, or at least for being so high in the ranking. But after eating at dozens of American-style Chinese restaurants all over the county, and then eating again at this chain, it became crystal clear that when it comes to this style of familiar Chinese food, P.F. Chang’s is hard to beat. Order the Chang’s spicy chicken, kung pao tacos and dry-rub ribs, then try to tell me I’m wrong.

The sign in the window advertises Szechuan and Mandarin cuisine, the lime-green walls scream late 1980s, and chopsticks are offered only on request. The house specialty “dry braised beef” is highly addictive, a mix of sweet and savory with a thin, almost-brittle texture unlike anything you’ve eaten elsewhere. The mu shu pork rolls are enormous. And the crispy egg rolls are as grease-free as they come.

While the Sichuan-style dandan noodles aren’t nearly as spicy as they used to be here, they are still the best dandan noodles in O.C. Get the cold spicy pork belly, too. You will trail garlic vapors for days, and you won’t mind. Cash only.

5408 Walnut Ave., Irvine, 949-653-6138

13. Sam Woo

Sam Woo is divided into three restaurants within a restaurant: the fancy seafood and dim sum dining hall, a more casual Express cafe (cash only), and a takeout-only version of Express. The menu in the fancy dining room touts more than 300 items, not counting beverages. Some cooks specialize in only a few dishes, so when that cook isn’t working those dishes aren’t available. The guy who makes the delicious slippery rice sheets wrapped around barbecue pork, for example, goes home around 1 p.m., so you have to get there before that if you want those. All of the barbecue is great here, especially the crispy pork belly, which is usually sold out by 6 p.m. Also excellent: the pork wonton soup, barbecue pork bao (best in O.C.), congee (ask for sliced chicken instead of the regular chicken), Peking duck, and stir-fried lamb chops.

Look around the cramped dining room. Most customers are slurping beef noodle soup, which comes various ways here. One is extra-spicy while another is made with a bright, clear broth. The Taiwanese version of dandan noodles with minced pork is superb, but you shouldn’t expect the dish to travel well, as it needs to be eaten immediately. And if you like classic pork-chop rice, this is the place. Cash only.

This xiao long bao specialist is always packed. The skins on their juicy pork dumplings are thicker than Din Tai Fung’s, but they are also bigger and available sweetened or unsweetened. Also good: cumin beef stir-fry and the beef vermicelli soup.

2445 E. Imperial Highway, Brea, 714-928-7666

16. The Little Kitchen

The service here is excellent, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find better kung pao or orange-peel chicken anywhere. This is classic American-style Chinese at its best, served until midnight.

New owners took over this long-running diner last year and freshened it up, adding “New” to the name. The food is still classic American-style Mandarin and Sichuan. The orange-peel beef is the best of its genre. The honey walnut shrimp are sweetly addictive, even if they don’t conjure images of China.

This is the place for classic, slap-dash dim sum selected from fast-moving trolleys pushed around the dining room by overbearing waitresses at lunchtime. Blink, and you’ll miss your favorite bao. The Hong Kong style lobster is good, but it’s no Tan Cang Newport Seafood (see above). Skip the Peking duck, but do not underestimate the orange chicken. The Diamond Jamboree branch is the best of this local chain.

The first thing to know about this place is that they don’t serve pork or shrimp. The second thing to know: Portions are huge. The food is otherwise classic American-style Chinese done very, very well, especially the beef with scallions, lamb with green chilies (pungent but not at all spicy), orange beef, potstickers, and some of the best chow mein around.

Operating since 1978, this old-school Chinese cafe in a vintage A-frame got a beautiful Googie-inspired revamp last year. Meanwhile, the Mongolian beef is still straight out of the 1970s – and it is fantastic. So, too, the Yen Ching beef, made with the house special sauce. And if you must eat sweet-and-sour shrimp, do it here.

James Beard Award-winning restaurant critic Brad A. Johnson has been writing about food for more than 20 years. A prolific traveler who has dined around the world, he joined the Orange County Register in 2012 to help readers find the best steaks, the strongest margaritas, the freshest sushi, the hottest Thai curries and more. Brad dines incognito and pulls no punches. Although he has yet to find a local restaurant to merit a perfect four-star rating, he remains ever hopeful as the quest continues.

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